At the time of this post for PC based DC Universe online some of our major retailers for games.
Ebgames has it for $78
Dicksmith has it for $79.94
JB Hifi has it for $75
The Mighty Ape ( NZ retailer) has it for $89.00
A friend from the US said he got his copy for $50
On the DC online site, Australia does not have any digital distributors listed, but under the US flag you can buy it from Steam for 49.00 US dollars
Add GST of 5 bucks to the US price of 50 ( if we had to pay GST on the item like our big retailers want us to) , and then a 2% foreign currency which seems to be the minimum charge on Credit card, your still looking at around $56 dollars, so STILL 20 bucks cheaper, but because we don’t pay GST it would work out to be around $51. almost $30 dollars difference.
I couldn’t find a monthly fee as apparently its determined by the package you pick, but say they stick to the current standard model of around $15 ish a month, that is 1 – 2 months play time equivalent loss by us buying locally.
Eb Games when I bought Aion from there price matched Dicksmith at the time which saved me about $ 16. I can’t predict the prices in the next few days, but for instance WOW – Cata xp was more expensive if you preordered it from JB, they were listing much cheaper prices on and around the actual release date. Sometimes ( if you can wade through the mess of what is usually left of the entertainment sections – and find a staff member Target and Kmart will also have it cheaper. So if you do want to buy it, shop around.
But having said that.. it is unlikely that any Aussie retailer will beat Steam’s price.
Cata is enough to keep me occupied for now, don’t need a distraction just yet so even after all that I probably shall not be purchasing it, but.. $50 bucks is more reasonable to spend on a game that may not keep my interest for more than a month, then heading towards that $80 dollar mark.
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The US controls prices of certain things artificially, despite inflation over the years. We can still buy a music CD for $12-15 because that’s what people believe CDs are worth (a trend set in the early 90s?) even though with inflation they’re probably worth double that. Matinee movie tickets are $5-9 a person here depending on what part of the country you’re in. I guess the people setting the prices figure that people wouldn’t pay for things if the prices went up.
In Australia, or any country where goods are being imported, cultural convention has no affect on the price tag so you have to pay actual worth. Games would be no exception. To me WoW is actually a very cheap game, since I’m used to shelling out 60-70 bucks for Japanese console titles.
Anyway, on the bright side, your dollar is now worth more than ours =)
There has been some finger pointing at the high cost of rent for commercial in oz to explain why they need to charge more, but I would be interested to know who is really pocketing the gold-
But you realize the cost to make a CD is cheaper. The cost to make a CD off of a master CD is probably around a nickel in 2011.
So yes, even though people probably won’t pay $30 for a CD, a CD made now in 2011 is also cheaper than one made in 1991. Granted, the cost differences are nowhere close to ~$15. But hey, iTunes has singles for 99 cents.
Uh uh Aussies get charged a 1.69 – 1.99 a single 2.99 each tv ep
People in the commonwealth always get ripped on games and books compared to the US. I call shenanigans!
I get paperbacks through http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ which is usually less than half the price in Oz, including postage. How does this work? Australian book distributors have legal protection supposedly to support the Australian publishing industry (right!). So legitimate importers pay more than I do for books, which means the shelf price here is double the shelf price overseas. Does the author make more money? Nope. Do the retailers make good profits? Nope. Do the UK and US publishing companies make a killing? Yep. Do politicians have an easy time getting their memoirs published? You guessed it.
I get most my books from there as well- means I can read twice as much ! There is a deal for local publishing houses that get first Dibs on sale rights and only books that are exempt can be imported from overseas for cheaper then republishing copies locally I believe
I bought DCUO on steam, partly because it was noticeably cheaper than local prices, but mostly because it was the only way I would be able to play at launch. (Both mightyape and ebgames give it a 20th Jan availability date, and DSE just says “out of stock)
Seriously, the distributers over here just don’t seem to want to sell PC games – thank goodness for digital distribution.
(Incidentally, the cost of buying the game on steam plus data overages for the 15gb to download it – I tried and failed to download the beta client twice, which has guaranteed me a hefty net bill in a week or so – still comes out cheaper than the cheapest retail price I’ve seen. Also, it was briefly available discounted on D2D for US$40 (although sadly not until after I’d purchased and started preloading it on steam), so I can see it frequently being available cheaper than the current US$50 in future)
What are u paying monthly – been told aussies have to pay 20 a month and no option to pay in us dollars at the 15 a month rate?
I’ve had my station account for a couple of years, so it’s priced in US$ – I’d probably be less than impressed (and vocally unsubbed) if I was paying the higher NZ$=>AU$=>US$ rate.
What’s GST?
Goods and Services Tax. Like VAT or a Sales tax. Basically a consumption tax as opposed to an income tax.
It was supposed to reduce all the other taxes and roll them into one tax and make some items cheaper and cut down admin costs – but didn’t quite work
DC Universe is a big title for an MMO and Sony Online Entertainment is really cashing in on it but I don’t think I’ll be getting this game because I already have COH/COV and Champions. These two are already a sandbox in terms of hero creation. As much as I want to become a sidekick to Superman and Batman like everyone else but getting another superhero MMO is not practical. Anyway, have fun everyone!